28o CLASSIFICATION 



pollination. The slender style, however, on close 

 inspection, is found slowly to move in a circle as if in 

 search of the anthers, and may thus be self-pollinated 

 if cross-pollination fails. Such provision for self- 

 pollination in case cross-pollination fails is met with 

 in several flowers. 



In the conspicuous white flowers of Yiicca, Yucca- 

 moths have been found to stuff pollen-grains into the 

 stigmas of all the capsular species, in order that 

 the larvce hatched from the eggs deposited by the 

 moths inside the ovary in the neighbourhood of the 

 ovules may receive the nourishment necessary for 

 their sustenance (fig. 252). 



The petaloid perianth often makes the flowers con- 

 spicuous, as in Gloriosa and Yucca. When the 

 flowers are small they are rendered conspicuous by 

 being aggregated together in close racemes and 

 umbels. 



Nat. Order 2. CommelinacecB. — Herbs prostrate or 

 erect. Leaves with prominent sheath. Flowers more 

 or less irregular, hermaphrodite or polygamous, often 

 enclosed in spathaceous bracts. Perianth inferior, 

 6-leaved in two series, the outer sepaloid and the 

 inner petaloid. Stamens 6 to 8, all perfect, or some 

 abortive; filaments often bearded with moniliform 

 (bead-like) hairs. Carpels usually 3, connate in a 3- 

 celled superior ovary. Ovules solitary or few. Fruit 

 a capsule or indehiscent. Seeds angled, albuminous. 



Chiefly tropical. The common plants are all weeds 

 of moist and waste places, such as jata-kanshira or 

 dholapata {Commelina benghalensis) (see fig. 103), a 

 very common weed of ditches and other moist places, 

 with two kinds of flowers, one kind aerial, with the 

 inner perianth beautifully blue, another cleistoga- 

 mous, buried under the ground (see Chapter XVI); 



